Being that I just dropped The Experience Chapter 18 in our last edition of Mixed Reviews, I figured I'd follow up with Chapter 20, which was the next one I recorded for the series*. This was a solo effort from me, it is a collection of some of my favorite tracks from 1999. There were supposed to be four volumes, but I only recorded two. I don't remember if I ever started recording the other ones. I'm pretty sure I had the basic playliss laid out though, because I vaguely remember figuring out all four volumes before starting recording, so I could determine how many volumes I would need and selected the best tracks to use per volume.

As for why I never recorded the other two volumes, I'm going to assume it's because during the recording of the second tape, my Tascam-688 8 Track Recorder malfunctioned**... That was actually nothing new. In '99 the machine was nine years old and had seen a lot of work! In recent times, it had died on me in the middle of several projects (including DeeJay Bird's "Beneath The Surface" sessions). I was taking that thing to the repair shop far to regularly. Although I did get it fixed and was able to finish volume two of Chapter 20, as well as continue to use the Tascam-688 until 2003***, I think I just lost the rhythm of the project and didn't bother to go back and record them. Plus around that time, I had started a bunch of other mixtape projects****, most of which never got completed for multiple reasons.

For those who aren't up on their Marvel Comics game, the character on the tape cover is Kang The Conquerer. He is a Time Traveling villain who most often appeared in Fantastic Four comics. Using his image was definitely a reference to my radio show, Time Travel Radio, but also in reference to "The Experience" series in general, being it was a journey thru a specific point in time, 1999.

I believe the actual playlists, with the 3 heads and Back To The Future Logo, were designed by Bermuda of Chicago rap group, IFO. He was helping out doing some design interning and other assistance with the Time Travel Show at that time.

When I go back and listen to my old mixtapes, I'm always prepared to be very scrutinizing of myself and cringe at my flaws, but I'm still happy with the blends and how these tapes are put together. A hint that I was happy with the end product is evident in the promotional flyer which states, "Good Ole Fashioned Good Blends and Great Music"...

The Download includes both volume 1 & 2, the playlists, cover art, and the promotional flyer.

**An additional kick in the face is that I just remembered while listening to this as I type, the machine actually stopped working on the second to last track on side B...seriously. I was one song away from being done. That's what creates the weird volume change in the song. It also had a weird effect on the DBX Noise Function so the tape isn't as crisp as it should be and has some weird sound changes thru out. It's annoying but not unlistenable...in my opinion. However, because of that I only pressed a very limited amount of these and never reprinted. Being I was in the middle of other projects, it didn't seem worth it to start from scratch and do it over.

***I recorded the Rhymesayers released, DJ Nikoless "This Is Where You Got It From" Double Disc on the Tascam-688 and then pretty much retired it from there. Ian Campbell was my intern then and he assisted by letting me mixdown "This Is Where You Got It From" at his house on Cool Edit Pro. From there I got put up on Cool Edit Pro and have been using it every since.

****I have a lofty goal of finishing all this partially done mixes at some point. Which involves pulling out the beast that is the Tascam-688 for it's last missions. I just ran across a box full of 8-track masters so I got a bunch of stuff I need to mixdown... There is some pretty good mixes started in there:

1)Kool G Rap Collection (can't remember the title...)

2)Nas "Prophecy: It Was Written I Am Illmatic"

3)The Original Way: This was probably the best concept I ever came up with. I'll need a separate blog just to explain, but it involves MCing by some of undergrounds finest, Original Breaks, and a fine collection of DJs/Producers; JEL, PNS of The Molemen, DJ Pratt, and myself...

MIXED REVIEWS: Will be an on-going column dedicated to dropping ‘90s mixes that were mainly available only on cassette tape. Expect joints from myself, my crew, close associates, as well as some of the heavy hitters and unsung heros…